Learn My Purpose

Welcome! Explore this area to access resources including Pastor Rick Warren’s Daily Hope free email devotional, 42 audio messages for you to learn your purpose, and leadership courses that will take you deeper into a purpose driven life.

In Your Community

Book Study: Choose a book of the Bible and commit to studying it in depth. Read through the entire book a few times. While doing this, get a basic understanding of how the book is structured, what the author’s message is, who he is speaking to, what the book’s purpose is, etc. Then start with a section of one chapter and read this through a few times asking the same questions as above. To help you in your study, you may want to pick up a commentary that helps explain things verse by verse.

The ACTS Model: The ACTS model of prayer involves breaking our prayers up into different phases or focuses. The A stands for adoration. The first portion of our prayers should focus on adoring God for who he is and giving him honor and glory. The C stands for confession. A very basic part of prayer is self-examination and coming clean before God about our sin, confessing it, and then turning from it. The T stands for thanksgiving. Thanksgiving involves thanking God for who he is and what he has done. The S stands for supplication, which involves bringing our requests before God. This model helps us stay balanced in our prayers and attuned to the will of God.

Fasting: The purpose of a traditional fast is to abstain from food in order to focus clearly on your relationship with God. You can also fast from television, entertainment, reading, or anything that distracts you from God. Those who are diabetic, pregnant, or who suffer from severe physical disorders when fasting from food should fast from other things that are not physically damaging. Remember, the goal is to develop a focus on God. In order to fast you may want to consider the following:

What is the purpose of this fast?

Begin with something small like one meal or one time slot.

During the fast, commit the time you would have spent eating to prayer, bible study, worship, etc. Use it as a time to focus on God.

Journaling: Sometimes it is helpful to journal in order to see God’s work in our lives. You may want to start a journal that allows you to record some of the victories and struggles you are having. Record your thoughts and feelings as you go through a process of self-examination. Make it a point to review your journal annually to see how God has worked in your life over the past year.

Money Management: Take some time to look over how you manage your money. If you don’t have a budget you may want to establish one. Spend some time praying over what God wants you to do with the money he has given you. This will then help you budget with God’s priorities in mind. If you need help with this it may be a good idea to see a Christian financial counselor.

God has
promised many wonderful benefits in your life if you will meditate on the Word
of God and then do it.

Surprisingly,
if you know how to worry, you already know how to meditate on the Word of God.
Worry is when you take a negative thought and you think on it over and over and
over. When you take a passage of Scripture and you think on it over and over
and over, that’s called meditation.

There are six
ways you can get a grasp on God’s Word.

You
can hear it,

You
can read it,

You
can study it,

You
can memorize it,

You
can meditate on it, and

You
can apply it.

But if all
you do is hear the Word of God when you go to church, you have no grip on the
Word of God, and it can be pulled out of your mind very easily.

The Bible
says in Philippians 2:16, “Hold firmly to
the Word of Life” (NLT). You don’t have a good grip on the Bible unless
you’re doing all six habits: hearing it, reading it, studying it, memorizing
it, meditating on it, and applying it.

Psalm 119:16
says, “Your laws make me happy. I never
forget your word” (GW). Do you want to be happy? God’s principles will make
you happy, and you remember those principles by memorizing them, meditating on
them, and then applying them.

Psalm 119:35
says, “Make me walk along the path of
your commands, for that is where my happiness is found” (NLT). Usually
we’re looking for happiness in all the wrong places. God says happiness is
found in the path of his commands.

Talk It Over

What
distractions keep you from being able to meditate on God’s Word?

Who
in your life can help you as you memorize Scripture? How can you help each
other in this discipline?

What
does it say about God when we can find happiness by obeying his rules and
commands?